Mammalthon 2 Is Coming!

My amazing, talented wife Jennifer -- the force behind The Daily Mammal -- is launching Mammalthon 2 next week. Here's an excerpt from her post about it:


Last December, 36 beautiful, generous, animal-loving art aficionados participated in the first Daily Mammal 24-Hour Mammal Marathon. I stayed up for 24 hours straight and drew a mammal an hour (almost). People who donated to Defenders of Wildlife got to request a mammal, see it appear during the 24-hour mammalthon, and then receive the original drawing in the mail. It was unbelievably fun, and we raised more than $800 for Defenders.

It's time for Mammalthon 2! This time, the contributions will be going to The Wildlife Center, a wonderful wildlife rehabilitation hospital in northern New Mexico. Spring means baby season and hundreds of injured and orphaned baby animals that need a place to recuperate and some help getting back into the wild. Your participation in Mammalthon 2 will help make sure these babies, and all the other animals The Wildlife Center rehabilitates, get the care they need.

* * *

Go to her web site to learn how you can get a beautiful, original drawing of the mammal of your choosing and be part of a great cause all at the same time! If nothing else, stop by on the 19th and cheer her on! See you there!

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Monday Morning Minnie -- Variations

(Click image for larger version)



Taking the simplified image of Minnie from last week, I've made some simple variations to convey a series of moods or emotions.

(Thanks to Jack Atkins for the idea -- the "surprise" variation was his!)

My apologies for the lateness of this post. Blogger is having a problem uploading image files, and I've been trying since yesterday. It wasn't until now that it occurred to me I could upload it myself and then just link to the image here. Duh.

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Monday Morning Minnie & Marty -- 2-25-08

(Click on image for larger version -- as always!)

Continuing on my 'simplification' kick, this week I decided to make Marty and Minnie into cartoon characters.

Last week I mentioned the importance of exaggerating the differences between your subjects. Marty here is a good deal shorter, and stockier than in real life. It's hard to make Minnie even skinnier than she really is, but I did a little.

I also tried to get across Minnie's eager spirit, and Marty's friendly attitude -- at least toward those he knows.

Notice another feature of simplification -- choosing what to include and what not to. Minnie's tuft of white on her chest is very distinctive, as are Marty's spots. And of course Minnie's "crazy eyes!" Sometimes making these choices means leaving out some peculiar elements that, while accurate, may work against the general look you're trying for.

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Monday Morning Minnie -- 1/14/08

I decided this week to try a portrait of Minnie using the woodcut technique I've used a couple of times with Marty -- on August 27 and December 10 and last year -- which I figured would work out even better, since Minnie's all black and the starkness would show pretty well.

I was right!

We love how Minnie sleeps curled up with her head on her back feet like this!

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Monday Morning Marty & Jenny!

This week the Monday Morning Mammals (ha ha) are Marty and my lovely wife Jennifer! (I'd originally described them as "my first dog and my first wife," but then thought better of it. Now if only I'd thought better than to include this parenthetical comment...!)

Jennifer is the artiste behind The Daily Mammal, which recently had its successful 24-Mammals-In-24-Hours Marathon (or as we like to call it, the Mammalthon.) So many people requested mammals for that, along with their donations, that she's still drawing them.

The drawing was done with markers, based on a photo I'd taken a couple of weeks ago. We all love to hang out on the couch together. Of course the dogs are only allowed up if we invite them, and are very good at waiting and staring until such an invitation comes.

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24 Mammals in 24 Hours!

On December 22, Storyteller's Workshop illustrator (and my wife) Jennifer Rae Atkins is having a unique event over at her site, The Daily Mammal: 24 Mammals in 24 Hours.

To quote from her site:

"On Saturday, December 22, I will be drawing a mammal every hour. That's right, I'll stay up all night, draw and scan like crazy, and post the mammals here for you to see.

"I'm not just doing this because it will be fun, though. It's for a special cause: Defenders of Wildlife, a 60-year-old nonprofit organization operating nationally, that works to protect wild animals and their habitats. For more information about what they do, visit their website. If you have questions about how and why I chose them, post 'em here.

"Now, here's where it gets fun for you, too. If you make a donation of at least $25 (using the DONATE button on the right-hand side of this website), you get to request a mammal. I'll draw it on December 22, then I'll send you the original art! Each mammal drawing is about 5" by 8". I draw on tracing paper (but I don't trace!) with markers, pens, and colored pencils. I'll send your original art along with a gray piece of cardstock, like the ones I use when I scan my drawings, to provide the perfect background for framing your mammal. I will send all the mammals out on Monday, December 24.

"Tell me your favorite mammal (or, if you don't have one, let me choose one for you) and donate at least $25. You'll help animals and get a lovely piece of original art. The button's just right over there! And please stop by throughout the day on Saturday, December 22, to give me some moral support!"

Jennifer is a talented artist and a real lover of animals. Your support, financial and otherwise, will mean a lot to her, and to me. Make a donation, request a mammal and watch the fun all day and night on December 22. I'll be supplying the coffee.

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Monday Morning Marty & Minnie: Comparison

This sketch was done as a comparative study of Marty and Minnie's chests.

Though they're both roughly the same size, Marty is a lot heavier than Minnie. That's because Marty is solid muscle, whereas Minnie is mostly fur.

In this sketch comparison, you can see Marty's barrel chest on the right. He's got the muscles. His wide chest accounts for his front legs being so far apart.

Minnie's front legs are often far apart, as they are in this sketch, but that's more to do with poor posture than athletic physique. You can see her chest is a lot less bulging, a lot less muscular. And much of the volume that's there is her longer fur.

The odd perspective regarding the legs and tail, etc., are due to the fact that both the dogs were sitting right in front of me while I sketched, so I was looking down at a sharp angle. At first they were hard to keep still, but the more attention I'd give one, the more the other would want it, and they quickly figured out that sitting still was their way to get it. Quick learners, these two.

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Repeal Day

Those of you who are fans of my webcomic Jazz Age -- and those of you who aren't -- might find this interesting.

This Wednesday -- December 5 -- is Repeal Day, the anniversary of the ratification of the 21st Amendment here in the U.S., which repealed the 18th Amendment which had prohibited the sale, transportation and manufacturing of alcohol. We just called it Prohibition. And the makers of Dewars scotch have a web site up called RepealDay.com.

I was surprised by the depth of research that went into the site. There's one section that talks about the way Repeal Day used to be observed. For instance, to celebrate the 21st Amendment, festivities usually commenced at 21:00 hours, or 9:00 PM; the first drink of the night was usually non-alcoholic, to remind the guests of life under prohibition; and at midnight the host usually has a toast to reflect on what repeal has meant to them. This isn't just drunken abandon here.

They've also put together a station on Pandora.com called "Underground & Cutting Edge: 1920's" that plays music of the era. There's a lot of good ragtime and old jazz -- it sometimes veers way off course in time period, giving us much more recent blues and whatnot, but what can ya do?

Prohibition plays a pretty big part in Jazz Age, as it played a large part of everyday lives back in the 1920s. Those of us who want to harken back to those days and pay tribute to our grandfathers' time might want to host a Repeal Day party -- if nothing else, it's an excuse to get together and celebrate. And you don't have to drink Dewar's -- I'm a Jack & Coke man myself.

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NaNoWrimo and Suzi Romaine: Follow-Up

I did it!

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Monday Morning Marty & Minnie!

The other day Marty and Minnie were tugging on the same stick. It was really cute, so we took a few pictures.

I used one of those pictures as reference for this drawing. I decided to do another woodcut technique, like I did back in August. Since the technique requires that the image be drawn in negative, then reversed digitally, it's difficult to visualize as I'm drawing -- every black line I drawn in ink will become a white line, and wherever the white paper is left will be black. So it's difficult to gauge exactly how it'll look. That presents a challenge, but also makes the project fun -- the end result is always a surprise.

I did retouch the image a little, around the dogs' eyes and some of the outlines. But overall, it turned out as I expected.

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NaNoWriMo and Suzi Romaine!

This year I'm participating, once again, in National Novel Writing Month -- also known as NaNoWriMo. The idea is very simple: write a novel in a month.

Well, they do specify the parameters a bit. Write a 50,000-word first draft of a novel in the 30 days of November. That amounts to 1,667 words a day. Doesn't sound quite so difficult now, does it?

For the past two years I did my novels completely improvised; I'd taken improv classes with my wife a few years ago, and have recently gotten back into performing. One of the formats for long-form improv is called the Harold. It involves setting up three totally separate storylines with three separate sets of characters, then finding some ways to make connections between them, so that hopefully everything ties up -- or nearly so -- by the end. It was a great way to write a novel quickly, because there were no outlines to follow, or expectations to meet. (In NaNoWriMo you're allowed to write up outlines, plot synopses, character dossiers -- anything that won't end up in the actual text of the novel -- before November 1.)

For each of the first three chapters I would ask Jennifer for a few prompts, like they do in improv: favorite color, a line from a favorite song, a strange place to take a date. Things like that. I would then use them for inspiration for that chapter.

This year I started that format again, but I wasn't happy with how it was going. Perhaps I just needed a change from this format, or needed to push myself to do something more. That's when I remembered Suzi Romaine.

Suzi Romaine was a character I'd created way back in the mid 1990s. She was a sort of Ayn Rand-inspired heroine, with a flair for pirates and historic costuming and a love for vintage Beetles. So, kind of an idealised female me. Except her personality is very different from mine. Anyway, I'd made hundreds of sketches of the characters, written up a plot outline for a five-issue miniseries/graphic novel, and even created three eight-page short stories of her to get used to drawing her. I even drew a couple pages of the first issue. But it was too daunting a task at the time, and I never got around to drawing the project. There it sat in my file cabinet, waiting to be realized. And waiting...

So when November 2nd or 3rd rolled around, and I realized I wasn't at all happy with the way my improvised novel had started, I remembered all the preparation I'd done for a Suzi Romaine graphic novel and realized it would make a great prose novel! So I've started on Suzi Romaine: A Girl, Her Beetle and Her Empire. I'm a little bit behind in the word count, but I'm catching up. I haven't even needed to look at my reference from fifteen years ago, I know the work so well.

It is more challenging writing something you care so much about -- the choices you make seem more important -- but so far I'm happy with how it's going. I'll let you know my progress. In the meantime, if any of you are also NaNoWriMoing, feel free to share your stories about your stories here!

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Monday Morning Marty -- Marty in the Rio Grande!

Yes, the Monday Morning Marty is back!

This weekend Jennifer and I took Marty to the banks of the Rio Grande, which is about a mile from our new house. Marty had never seen a big river like this, and we didn't know how he'd react.

After a little initial trepidation, Marty took to the water like... well, like a duck to water. He loved it! We tossed sticks for him to fetch, and he loved jumping through the water to get to them! At one point he found the rather disgusting skull of what we hope was a coyote, and despite our repeated attempts to get rid of it he kept bringing it back. He was a muddy mess by the end of it, prompting a long-delayed bath when we got him home.

These are sketches of a couple of my memories of the adventure. He sure loved diving into that water! We'll have to take him back again, the next time he's due for a bath.

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Have Fun!

I know, I know -- I haven't posted in a while. It's been very busy here, what with getting the new house in shape and starting teaching and all. I'll try better, I promise.

Back in August I was hard at work on entries for two competitions -- next year's Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta commemorative poster, and the logo for Santa Fe's 400th Anniversary. I've since heard back officially from the Balloon Fiesta. They didn't select my image for their poster next year, but they are interested in making it a t-shirt. So that's a nice consolation prize. The Santa Fe 400 people I haven't heard back from officially, but the word is that my entry wasn't one of the finalists.

So, I didn't hit two home runs, in terms of outcome. But I did in terms of my happiness with the final work.
I'm only putting portions of each image up here, since I'm going to be selling one to the Balloon Fiesta and the Santa Fe logo may indeed end up being picked -- until you get official word, nothing is certain.

With both entries I went with my newly-discovered woodcut technique. I'm really happy with both results. Originally the Balloon Fiesta poster was simply drawn in black outline and colored -- the woodcut effect adds a whole 'nother dimension to the work, making the drawing style as interesting as the subject and the composition.

I had a blast putting these entries together. While keeping in mind what I thought the judges would be looking for, I still went with what I wanted to do. I felt much more freedom than I have in a while with most of the work I've gotten. I definitely have to enter more of these competitions in the future. Even though I didn't win (although I didn't lose, in the case of the Balloon Fiesta entry that's going to become a sold piece!) I came out with some great portfolio examples.

But of course, it occurs to me that I can apply this sort of freedom to my other work, too! If a client calls and says they want such-and-such, I need to feel free enough to suggest they look at other solutions, too -- and then show them what I mean. I need to ask for more freedom -- "would you mind if I went with more of this sort of direction? I think it would work really well here." I'm not just being paid for my hands, but for my judgment too -- I need to exercise it more. It'll make me more in demand, and besides, it's more fun.

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Jazz Age/Annie Crossover!

Fans of my webcomic Jazz Age may want to pay extra attention to the Annie story unfolding now in papers around the country and online: Annie, Sandy and Santiago have found themselves in 1927 Boston!

And while I won't reveal yet whether any of the characters of Jazz Age will be making an appearance in the strip, I won't rule it out either. I will say, though, that some memorable landmarks will be seen, such as Scollay Square and the Public Garden.

Annie, Santiago and Sandy were flying to Boston in the present day when Annie's old friends from Atlantis accidentally scooped her up in their time machine and set her down in 1927.

Follow Annie's adventures in 1920s Boston, and keep an eye out for any private eyes or archaeologists!

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WARNING: Have Fun OR ELSE...!

I've been having more fun drawing lately.

I don't know what it is. Perhaps it's being back in New Mexico, after two years in Philly, a city I like, but don't really feel at home in. Maybe it's feeling less pressure financially, now that Jennifer has started working again after getting her degree in the aforementioned City of Brotherly Love.

Or maybe it's just that I've made a conscious decision to have more fun.

Illustrators, like all freelancers, cannot forget to be responsible -- meet deadlines, be responsive to the clients' needs, solve problems, budget their time and their money, and market, market, market. But sometimes those responsibilities can overload your circuits, 'til you're blind to anything else. A new job becomes just another deadline, just another necessity, just another paycheck. Sure, there are times when the workload is so heavy I just don't have time to enjoy myself. I have to get the work done and out the door, just to I can breathe.

But then I have to remind myself that I can breathe again, and that I can go back to having fun -- even if it means a little loss in efficiency. Which it usually doesn't, even, by the way. But I'll get back to that in a moment.

Having fun is not only important because -- well, because it's fun. It's also vital to my abilities as an illustrator.

The simple, demonstrable fact is that when I'm having fun drawing, I'm drawing better. My work is more fluid and dynamic, my ideas are sharper and more interesting, and I have more of them.

Last week I needed to draw up some ideas for a project. I had one idea, which I just thought I'd draw up and send to the client. I often provide just one idea, especially when the client provides me with very specific parameters. This time, though, the client gave me lots of freedom to come up with a good layout. But all I had was one idea. I didn't really think I needed more than one, really.

But anyway, I got tired of sitting around the office all day again, so I went to a local coffee place to sketch -- you know, the kind of place with wireless Internet and free refills. I really enjoyed the energy there -- getting a cookie as well as coffee helped there -- and my first sketch was a stupid one, which I knew we'd never use, but which I thought my client would find funny. That got me having fun!

I then drew up the one idea I'd already had. But then a couple more ideas came to me. I ended up having several ideas to show the client, and the one we're going with wasn't that original one. It was much better.

Having fun also helps you maintain your style -- or develop it. When every job is a chore, when all you're doing is satisfying the client, and not yourself, there's the danger that you'll lose your own original style to the dictates of the assignment. Let that happen often enough and you may find the only work you're getting is work you really don't like, work you're not happy with, and work that isn't the best you can do.

Now, getting back to that efficiency argument. I sometimes rationalize not having fun with the argument that there isn't time to have fun, that the project has to be done quickly and efficiently. But having fun with a project doesn't have to slow you down; quite the opposite. Working in a dreary mindset will quickly slow me down because I'll lose all motivation to keep working! I'll find excuses to leave my drawing board, take frequent breaks, longer lunches, and develop a substance abuse problem.

And even if having fun does take longer -- so what? If I'm having fun with the project, why would I want it to be done in such a hurry? What am I rushing through work to get to that could be as much fun as my chosen profession? Right? Because there are times -- numerous times -- when drawing, creating, and solving problems is the most fun thing to do in the world. And with a little bit of reminding yourself, you can have those moments much more often. Don't wait 'til the project is too good not to have fun -- have fun with the projects you've got today!

Because if you can't find something fun about every project, you shouldn't be working on that project. Because having fun is the whole reason we freelancers give up the security of a steady paycheck and the simplicity of automatic withholding. And because having fun is FUN!

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Monday Morning Marty -- 8-13-07

Here's a Marty comic strip that I drew with my wife, Jennifer.

This was a fun game Jennifer came up with while we were waiting for our food at a restaurant somewhere. Jennifer took the page out of her Filofax, wrote down the title she made up and drew up the panels. I then had to come up with a story to match the title and draw it in the panels.

This is a fun exercise to pass the time, and it also helps sharpen your storytelling abilities. Trying to find a logical reason for each panel to be the size and the placement that it is helps you decide the pace of the story, and that may come before you think of a plot or even a subject.

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Monday Morning Marty -- 7-30-07

For today's Monday Morning Marty, instead of a single image, I decided on a series of quick gesture drawings. I'd said last week that I wanted to keep the Marty drawings loose and fun, to make them more of a series of studies than worry about perfect image-making or slick, polished illustration. So this week I'm pushing that to its ultimate.

Quick gestures like these make great warm-ups before going into more detailed illustration, and they make excellent study and learning guides for getting familiar with a subjects proportions, mannerisms or expressions. But they're also great drawings in and of themselves, as they capture a quick snapshot of a moment. In the fact that the strokes and lines are quick, unpolished and unrefined, they can reveal as much about the artist as about the subject.

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Inspiration: Otto Soglow

Goofbutton.com has posted a great collection of single-panel cartoons and sequences of Otto Soglow.

Soglow's one of those artists whose work you've probably seen, but didn't know who did it. I've seen his work in countless old books and magazines growing up. His little king character might seem familiar. Enjoy!

Thanks to Drawn: The Illustration and Cartooning Blog for letting me know about this post.

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Tutorial Will Have To Wait...

Dad-gum it. Wouldn't you know it?

I was just in the middle of some really good writing, explaining the need for a good comics-making system and outlining the beginning of the process. I was writing about the rough layout stage, and the layout worksheets I use, and was going to scan the most recent one.

Then I realize I'd thrown it out. And it went out in the trash.

Sigh.

I saved the draft, and I'll pick up working on it next week, when I will SAVE the next layout worksheet in preparation for this series.

Boy, it's going to be a good one, though. Just you wait. It really, really is...

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On Being a Comics Reporter

Last week Alan Gardner, the guy who runs the excellent Daily Cartoonist blog, put out a call for cartoonists and people in the comics world to help fill in for him during his vacation, which began yesterday. I wrote in saying I'd be happy to! It'll be good exposure for me, I figure, and it should be fun, too. He says great, thanks me, gives me the login info and all, and off he goes on vacation.

And then it hits me -- I'm supposed to find NEWS STORIES for this blog!

The Daily Cartoonist, for those of you unaware, is a great news source, with all the latest about who's doing what, what comic strip collection just came out, who got fired, who got picked up -- and I'm supposed to contribute to this? Daily Cartoonist is where I find out all this stuff!

Luckily there are two other volunteers who are also filling in for the vacationing Mr. Gardner -- Charles Brubaker and The Comics Reporter's Tom Spurgeon -- both of whom seem more than capable of filling in single-handedly. I've been supplying a few stories so far, and I'm actually enjoying tracking them down, but it's clear I'm not needed for my journalistic sleuthing. I can't compete with these guys there.

But one thing I can do, that neither of them can lay claim to -- I can talk about what it's like to draw Little Orphan Annie!

I'm going to put together a series of posts on the creation of a comic strip, and link those posts to Daily Cartoonist. I know, it's shameless self-promotion -- except that I am, just a little, ashamed -- but that's what I was asked to do, dammit. Daily Cartoonist is a site for fans of, well, cartoons. And cartoonists. And cartooning. Even if you prefer the term "comics illustration." (I know I do.)

So look for those posts to begin some time soon. Maybe in mere moments, depending on who calls me in the next few minutes with work.

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Drawing of My Dog, Part 1

My wife Jennifer believes in drawing for fun.

Wow. What a concept.

She's started her own blog, The Daily Mammal, wherein she will draw a new mammal every day. If she keeps it up, she can draw every named mammal in just 14 years! Wow! But whether she does or not, she's having fun. And she's always telling me I should draw for fun. Not for an assignment, or for a deadline. But for fun.

Fun.

Fun?

Well, tonight I gave it a try, sketching our dog Marty. Here's the result.

Not bad for my first attempt at drawing him. And not bad for my first sketch from life in a long time. It even kind of looks like him. Okay, it looks a lot like him. Not perfect, but pretty good. I'm sure this won't be the last time I draw Marty, and I'm sure my next one will be even better.

But you know what? I had fun.

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